Rescued Syrian refugees leave cruise liner after Cyprus stand-off

Almost 300 mostly Syrian refugees rescued by a cruise liner in the Mediterranean eventually disembarked in Cyprus yesterday after hours of refusing to budge and demanding to go to Italy.

A total of 345 migrants, mainly women and children, had been plucked from a boat in trouble off the coast of Cyprus on Thursday by a Salamis Cruise Lines ship, according to the company and Cypriot authorities.

Some 700 paying passengers disembarked from the 157-metre liner at the island's southern port of Limassol, police said, but only 65 of those rescued at sea left the ship. The others had refused to leave the vessel, the shipping company said.

The situation was resolved shortly before dawn yesterday when police boarded the ship to talk to the remaining refugees, who agreed to leave, according to interior ministry official Marinos Papadopoulos. "Everything went calmly," he said.

The refugees were taken by bus to a camp near Nicosia. There they were able to shower, get clean clothes and rest, according to the Red Cross.

Before the migrants agreed to leave, a frustrated Kikis Vassiliou, managing director of Salamis Cruise Lines, said: "We did our outmost to save their lives, to give them food, support and now they want to destroy this company." He said the cruise line could lose several hundred thousands of euros as a result if the incident.